


Two Truths and a Lie

by Moontyger



Category: Batgirl (Comics)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 01:58:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2795573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moontyger/pseuds/Moontyger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephanie has decided that Cass needs to do at least one thing just for fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Truths and a Lie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [webofdreams89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/webofdreams89/gifts).



She should get up. It was pathetic to just lie there, the metal floor of Batgirl's hideout cold against her overheated skin, struggling to catch her breath. She should get up and she would – any minute now.

Still lying there, Stephanie carefully turned her head to look at Cass, who was of course perfectly fine. Not out of breath, not even sweating. But that wasn't new. One day, she told herself, she'd be good enough that she could make Cass actually have to work during these training sessions. One day, but that was obviously not going to be anytime soon.

But that had never stopped her before. She'd get there and it started with sitting up. Slowly, Steph did just that, forcing her bruised and already stiffening stomach muscles to work. Okay, sitting. That was progress.

Cass was watching her, lips curled in that smirk she sometimes had, the one that said she'd done good work and she knew it. It wasn't meant to be mean; Steph knew that. Cass just wasn't exactly a people person; she'd probably never thought about how it looked to someone who was neither mentor nor target. From what little Steph knew of her, Cass hadn't known many people who didn't fit one of those categories.

“Did you ever think about having a normal life?”

Cass frowned, forehead wrinkling in puzzlement that matched the tone of her reply. “Normal?”

“You know. Going to school, things like that.”

“Do you wish to be normal?”

Stephanie opened her mouth to answer, then paused, mouth still slightly open until she realized she probably looked idiotic like that. Once, the answer would have been automatic. Her whole life, she'd never been normal; she'd never had a chance to be. Not that her childhood had been like Cass's – it wasn't that extreme. It seemed almost absurd to compare them. But even in Gotham, most people probably didn't have a supervillain for a dad, not even a second-rate one like the Cluemaster.

Finally, she shrugged and pushed herself to her feet, walking over to Cass before flopping down next to her. “Maybe not. But I used to,” she admitted. “Sometimes it seemed like that was all I ever wanted.” Of course, what she'd thought of as normal back then really hadn't been; it had all been born of too much television rather than anything real: all those close-knit, loving families with no problems that couldn't be resolved in thirty minutes, or at most an afterschool special. No one made a show about the child of an addict and a thief or, for that matter, one about the daughter of an assassin – at least, not a realistic one.

“But not now. Then why did you ask?” Cass still looked as though she didn't understand, though she was somehow more intense about it than she had been. Her arms were crossed tightly in front of her; her nose wrinkled and brows drawn tightly together in an almost angry way.

If it had been Batman looking like that, Steph would have backed off – way off. But Cass looked like that often enough that she ignored it entirely. Linking her hands together, she stretched upward, then leaned a bit from side to side, trying to keep her muscles from stiffening up entirely. “I don't know. I just thought maybe school or something might be fun.”

“School is... fun?” It was clear that the idea of school being fun was an entirely new concept for Cass. 

Steph supposed she couldn't blame her. It wasn't the sort of thing you often heard someone say and when you did, it was usually adults whom she suspected didn't remember what it was really like. Steph hadn't ever found school fun exactly either, but it wasn't always _awful_. School had taught her that she definitely wasn't normal and didn't fit in, but on the other hand, it had often seemed almost safe compared to being home – especially when her father was around. But imagining Cass there, glowering uncomfortably at everyone, suddenly seemed a lot less “we could hang out” and a lot more “uncomfortable for everyone and likely to end in tears.” 

She wasn't sure how to explain that, however. Steph could hardly say that she'd thought maybe Cass needed more friends. Or she could, but she didn't want to – it seemed too tactless, maybe even harsh. “Never mind. It was a stupid idea.” She drew one knee up and wrapped her arms around it, ballerina-style, then ruined the good posture the pose was supposed to give her by leaning forward and resting her head on her knee. Her sweat had nearly dried now and even in her costume, she felt chilled. Curling in on herself like this wasn't as warm as a jacket, but it looked a lot less ridiculous.

“Oracle told you to ask.” Stephanie wasn't looking at Cass at the moment, but she could hear the certainty in her voice.

Steph jerked her head up guiltily. “No! Well, not really. She said something, but I wasn't really going to say anything.” And then she had anyway, because she thought maybe Oracle might be right. Cass _should_ get out more. Maybe Batman was okay hiding in a cave all the time, but Stephanie knew Cass well enough to be sure that she wasn't.

“You... agree with her?”

Steph tilted her head back and forth and shrugged, a little uncomfortable with it now that it was out there. Maybe she wasn't always the best at people either. “Maybe not about school.”

“What then?”

“I don't know. Maybe we could play a game or something.”

“We play tag,” Cass pointed out.

“Or we could do something else. It should be something that's just not fun, not for training.”

“ _Everything_ is training.” Cass probably had a point there, but the statement still convinced Stephanie that she was on the right track. Batgirl was in dire need of some fun, something with as few Bat-strings attached as she could manage.

“I'll think of something.”

* * *

“Something,” however, was harder to come up with than Steph had expected. A movie seemed safe, until she imagined Cass's reactions. An action movie would just lead to her criticizing the fake combat, while comedy... well, Cass had a sense of humor, but it wasn't the sort that was likely to find your typical teen comedy funny. She found it hard to imagine her liking most romantic comedies either. The trouble was that most movies drew on the exact kinds of experiences she was trying to give Cass. Without those, they would just seem foreign, dispatches from the alien world Cass observed without really being part of.

Food seemed an obvious idea. It was hard to go wrong with food, at least in Stephanie's experience – everyone liked to eat. But she hadn't counted on a restaurant full of potential eavesdroppers leading to a meal eaten entirely in an awkward silence. It wasn't that they only talked shop, but without that common interest to draw on, Cass had even less to say than usual. Stephanie tried to carry the conversation on her own, telling funny stories about school and the dumb things some kids there did, but Cass just looked at her blankly and she gave up. 

She didn't even consider shopping. Neither of them had much money and, even if they had, Cass didn't seem to actually _want_ anything – at least, not the kind of thing you could buy. Without that, even window shopping would seem pointless.

Someone else might have simply given up, but Stephanie was stubborn. Quitting wasn't something she knew how to do. Even so, she might never have come up with it if she hadn't been so bored.

Batgirl and Spoiler had been on a stakeout for hours, just sitting on the edge of a rooftop in silence, watching and waiting. Well, Batgirl had, and Spoiler had refused to leave. She didn't come out here to just go home and leave the work to someone else.

On the other hand, while Steph knew how stakeouts were supposed to work and she had good intentions, under the circumstances, it was hardly surprising that her mind wandered. There was only so much silent staring at a dark window she could take before she started wondering what would happen if she started dancing across the rooftop like Michigan J. Frog or something.

“Let's play a game.” She hadn't even meant to say it; it just popped out.

“We're busy.”

“Not something where we have to go anywhere or with a board or cards or anything. Something like... a getting-to-know you game. Have you ever heard of Two Truths and a Lie?”

“No.”

Someone else might have been discouraged by that monosyllabic reply, but Spoiler had spent an entire night chattering at Batman. If that didn't stop her, Batgirl certainly wasn't going to – especially when she knew that this wasn't necessarily an unfriendly response for Cass.

“You make three statements. Two must be true and one a lie. Then the other person guesses which one is which.”

“This is a game?”

“Like I said, it's to get to know people better. And to have fun.” Stephanie fidgeted and wondered if her butt had gone a bit numb. Given how long they'd been sitting here, she wouldn't be surprised. “Like this. My favorite color is red. I used to wish I had a brother. I like waffles. Which is the lie?”

Cass didn't even turn hear head to look in Steph's direction as she replied. “Your favorite color is purple.” She pointed at Steph or, more accurately, at the Spoiler costume.

“The costume is eggplant. But ok, you're right. It's your turn.”

“How does this teach us about each other? Those were...” Cass paused, probably trying out the words she still struggled with before she picked one. “Trivia.”

Steph shrugged and swung her legs a little, though she was careful not to actually kick the wall they were sitting on. She'd learned that lesson early – even if she didn't hurt herself, the thumps could give her away. “I just came up with those on the fly. Anyway, we don't have to do things like that if you don't want to.”

“No, I want to.” She paused again to adjust the binoculars before taking her turn, still without ever looking away from their target. “I like being Batgirl. I wasn't afraid to fight Lady Shiva. When I first saw TV, I thought it was showing real things.”

“You did?” From anyone else, it would have been ridiculous, but Stephanie knew just enough about Cass's upbringing to find the final statement credible. But only for a moment, then her shock faded and she realized the flaw in it. “No, you'd be able to tell they were acting, wouldn't you? So... you were afraid?” Steph looked away, staring down at her gloved hands clasped tightly in her lap. “I guess I knew that,” she said, her voice soft.

She was still trying to think of real statements for her turn, truths to equal the one Cass had just given her, when Batgirl bounced to her feet, the movement so fast and smooth that it almost seemed like she teleported rather than standing like a normal human. “He's on the move.”

After the distraction of the chase and the fight that followed, Stephanie thought that the game would have been forgotten. She should have known better; Cass never forgot anything.

As they were heading home, just before they parted ways, Cass stopped her. “Don't forget. It's still your turn.”

“Oh.” For a moment, Stephanie couldn't even remember what that meant, but then she had it. “Right. I'll be ready next time!”

* * *

After that, they played regularly – not multiple games, just one long one that they picked up whenever they felt like it. Sometimes they even played during fights, though only when it was just the two of them. It was harder that way, trying to be deliberately vague and yet still honest, but “hard” had never stopped either of them. 

They each got a point for a correct guess and Cass kept score, but even though they could both be competitive, it wasn't really about that. It was about them and their secrets - secrets and the strength that came from sharing them, even under the flimsy cover of the game. Stephanie had never expected Cass to like it so much; sharing secrets and words weren't things she'd ever seemed good at. Maybe that was why she liked it. Cass was so good at almost everything; it wasn't like she had a lot of things in her life that actually challenged her.

She didn't mean it to become something more, either. The game happened because she was bored and this, well, the rest happened because she was tired.

It was late, later than she usually stayed out: the sky was already turning the dove gray that would soon become the pinks and oranges of true dawn. They'd just swung away from a fight that had left Spoiler nursing an injured wrist – not broken, or at least she didn't think so, but it hurt enough that they were moving more slowly than usual.

They had time, so she took her turn at their mutual game, even though she was so tired that everything around her felt slightly unreal, like she was dreaming she was on a rooftop with Cass rather than actually there. “I like hitting them, even when things like this happen. I'm probably going to fail my history quiz today. And...” Steph turned back to look at Cass, her slight silhouette standing out starkly against the paling sky, and the words came out before she could call them back. “Sometimes I really want to kiss you.”

Cass froze, more still than Steph had ever seen her and that was saying something. When stealth was required, Batgirl scarcely seemed to breathe, but for just a moment, it was as thought she'd looked at a gorgon and been turned to stone. “You... what?” Cass stared a moment longer, then shook her head. “That isn't even...”

“No,” Stephanie interrupted, fueled by a sudden sense of opportunity rapidly fading (or maybe it was just exhaustion). “I mean it. I really, really do.” She stepped closer – one step, then another, and rested her hands lightly on the curve of Cass's waist, one on either side, before she remembered she had to let go long enough to take off her mask.

She wasn't sure what Cass would do; she hadn't said yes or no. But words had never been Cass's strength. When she removed her mask, it was as much of a declaration of “I want to, too” as if she'd spoken aloud. 

They met each other halfway, both suddenly eager for something they'd never spoken of before tonight. It was awkward at first as they struggled to figure out whose lead to follow, but sweet for all the fumbling and by now, they'd worked together enough that it didn't take them long to figure out what they were doing. Steph wasn't sure how long they stood there like that, holding onto each other and kissing, but the sun had nearly risen by the time they were done.

When their lips parted, Steph left her hands where they were for a moment longer, reluctant to let go. “Wow,” she breathed.

“Wow,” Cass echoed. She didn't seem in a hurry to leave either, not until something seemed to occur to her and she frowned. “But that means all your statements were true.”

“Oh...” Steph thought back to what she'd said and started to laugh. “I guess you're right.” 

It wasn't really funny, but Cass started laughing, too. Standing there laughing together, hand-in-hand and trembling on the edge of something shiny and new that she thought neither of them had ever expected to find, Steph thought the day already seemed brighter.


End file.
